It couldn't hurt

The employees gathered Saturday at the school's Wesley Foundation for a prayer vigil seeking pay hikes for university employees.

The Commercial Appeal of Memphis reports that about 285 University of Memphis employees make less than $11.62 per hour, the amount David H. Ciscel, a professor emeritus of economics at the school, determined was a living wage.

At the vigil, organized by university employees along with the United Campus Workers, Workers Interfaith Network and the Progressive Student Alliance, workers spoke on the challenges of earning less than a living wage.

Ciscel's study described a living wage as the pay required for a household to "live a minimally decent life" independent of monthly public assistance, food stamps, child-care subsidies and rent subsidies.